As an internationally recognized household name, this company is a fierce contender on the marketplace, both offline and online. To showcase just how powerful this international giant has become, here are 25 mind-blowing Walmart statistics that will help you see that Walmart is an ecosystem of its own.
Walmart is a striking example of how a great business idea can grow within the right economic climate and with the right strategic steps, becoming one of the world’s largest companies.
Having started as a discount store, Walmart today has millions of employees across the globe, with thousands of stores running under different names.
This brings up very interesting data, so let’s check it out!
Top 10 Walmart Statistics for 2021 You Should Know
- On a global scale, Walmart has a total number of 11,501 stores.
- During the pandemic, Walmart’s e-commerce went up by 74%.
- Texas has the highest number of stores — 516.
- Weekly, Walmart stores have around 265 million customers around the world.
- 55% of the company’s employees are women, Walmart statistics indicate
- Walmart managed to surpass eBay in retail e-commerce sales by 0.6%.
- Over 40% of the company’s employees work part-time.
- Walmart’s average full-time hourly wage is $14.26.
- Over 2.2 million people are currently working for Walmart worldwide.
- By 2020, Walmart managed to hire 265,000 US veterans.
Walmart History Facts
How did Walmart become the most profitable company in the world?
1. The company is 59 years old and started as a single discount store.
(Walmart)
It might be hard to believe that the retailer-behemoth (previously called Wal-Mart Stores Inc.) started as a single discount store. It had a vision of selling more for less. It was founded by Sam Walton in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.
2. People refer to Walmart as a “retail giant” for a reason.
(Statista)
What type of company is Walmart? How big is it? The business is a multinational retail corporation operating a massive grocery store chain, discount department stores, and hypermarket chains, with headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
According to data from 2020, the corporation had 11,501 stores worldwide in 26 countries. When it comes to the US, Walmart has 4,756 stores, 3,571 supercenter stores, and 809 neighborhood markets.
3. Walmart revenue in 2019 was $514.41 billion.
(Statista) (Macrotrends)
Walmart’s annual revenue witnessed significant growth since 2012 when its revenue was “only” $446.51 billion. For example, in 2020, annual Walmart’s revenue was $523.96 billion. In other words, there was an increase of 1.86% compared to 2019.
On the other hand, Walmart’s annual gross profit in 2020 was $129,359 million, almost the same as the gross profit from 2019 — $129,104.
4. Walmart yearly revenue has been on the rise since the very start.
(MoneyInc)
The company’s early days saw rapid expansion, with Sam Walton making nearly a million dollars in the initial year. Such a trajectory helped the businessman expand his business at a fast pace and open about 18 stores in five years.
In 1970, only eight years after the first-ever Walmart had opened, there were 38 different stores, with two more openings each year on average.
5. Walmart was the most profitable US retailer in 1988.
(Revenues and Profits)
In 2020, Walmart company net worth was $514.405 billion. These digits make it the world’s largest company by revenue. As the largest private employer globally, the company employs over 2 million people.
Fun fact: Walmart is also considering the option of breaking into the subscription-video business in the same fashion as Amazon and Netflix. The company also wants to establish its very own video-streaming service.
6. Walmart revenue has doubled since 2005. Its current annual income is $559.151 billion.
(Macrotrends)
While Walmart’s annual revenue in 2005 was estimated at $284.310 billion, the current data shows us that the company’s annual revenue is estimated at $559.151 billion (ending on January 31, 2021). That’s $274.841 billion more!
Likewise, while the average quarterly revenue in 2005 was about $75.397 billion, the 2021 figures show us it amounts to $152.079 billion.
Stats on Walmart annual revenue show it experienced a 6.72% growth in 2020. Very impressive, as the revenue in 2019 surpassed the previous year by a mere 1.86%.
7. Walmart’s global net income in 2021 amounts to approximately $13.7 billion.
(Statista)
Compared to the 2019 data, when it amounted to 7.1 billion, this is significant growth. However, when we see the 2020 stats when the company’s global net income was $15.2 billion, there is a slight drop.
Walmart Stats by Store Numbers and Sales Figures
How many stores does Walmart have?
8. There are 4,756 Walmart stores in the US.
(Statista)
This includes supercenters, local neighborhood markets, and discount stores—which were the company’s first facilities. The products available include electronics, apparel, furniture, groceries, and home appliances (in stores outside the US as well).
9. On a global scale, Walmart has a total number of 11,501 stores.
(Statista)
With that number of stores, it’s no wonder Walmart is a force to reckon with both on the domestic and the international retailer scene.
The company has three separate segments (Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club, and Walmart International), the first one being the strongest and most profitable segment.
As of 2020, Walmart U.S. is responsible for about 65% of all Walmart’s net sales.
10. The company is probably the most well-known retailer brand in the world.
(NRF)
According to the current Walmart statistics, Walmart is the most prominent global retailer. Following the US colossal, its competitors are trying hard to take over the reign: Amazon (USA), Schwarz Group (Germany), Aldi (Germany), Alibaba (China), and Costco (USA).
11. Amazon and Walmart currently have almost the same retail sales shares.
(Pymnts)
When it comes to the retail sales shares, 9.5% was the Walmart market share in 2020, compared to Amazon’s 9.2%.
However, speaking of e-commerce shares, Amazon still has a lead with 51.2%, compared to Walmart’s 5.6%.
12. During the pandemic, Walmart’s e-commerce went up by 74%.
(Forbes)
In the same fashion, the net sales went up by 10.5%. Since the pandemic, there have been three waves of shopping behaviors.
In the first wave, the main products that customers bought were groceries and consumable goods.
In the second wave, the focus was on home-bound products like games and entertainment. The third wave included apparel and toys.
13. Walmart statistics show Texas has the highest number of stores — 516.
(Scrapehero)
Next in line is Florida with 341 stores, California with 281, North Carolina (192), and Georgia (189).
When it comes to the cities, we have San Antonio with 29 stores as the leader of the pack. Houston (26), Orlando (25), and Jacksonville (24) follow suit.
14. Walmart Supercenter has the highest number of stores — 3,573.
(ScrapeHero)
There are six types of Walmart stores. The Walmart store with the highest sales is Walmart Supercenter, which makes 76.4% of all Walmart’s stores. Other stores include Discount Stores, Walmart Neighborhood Market, Walmart Pharmacy, Walmart Convenience, and Walmart Pickup.
15. In 2020, The Walmart Grocery app became the number one shopping app in the US.
(Grocery Dive)
The app witnessed a staggering 460% growth in daily downloads. It even managed to surpass the Amazon app downloads by 20%.
16. Walmart sales by category: shoppers are mostly buying groceries.
(Statista)
According to data following Walmart’s 2020 net sales in the US by product category, groceries made the most, generating 56% of all net sales that Walmart U.S. made.
Next on the list were general merchandise items with 32%. The third category was health and wellness products with 11%, while the remaining 1% were products categorized as “other.”
17. Millions visit Walmart stores on a global scale.
(Statista)
How many customers visit Walmart daily? According to Statista’s visitor statistics regarding Walmart and its daily foot traffic, in 2020, an estimated average of 37 million people used these stores across the planet.
18. Weekly, Walmart stores have around 265 million customers around the world.
(Statista)
Upon taking a closer look at these figures, it becomes clear that the firm’s weekly foot traffic has dropped slightly since the previous year. In 2019, the average count was around 275 million per week.
So far, the figures for 2020 are only better than in 2017, as customer service research shows the weekly customer count was 260 million back then.
19. Walmart fun facts: Walmart is Gen Z and Millennials’ favorite place to buy clothing.
(Ypulse)
The pandemic is responsible for many things, including the new at-home fashion trend among young people that started preferring comfortable instead of trendy clothing. In fact, comfortable clothing is currently the number one choice for young buyers.
Based on the one survey, 65% of young buyers will continue to shop online until the crisis is over. On that note, Walmart became the favorite place to buy clothing for Gen Z buyers and Millennials due to its low prices and variability of goods.
20. Mexico is the country with the highest number of Walmart stores outside the US — 2,571.
(Statista) (Compare Camp)
If we look back at Walmart facts, Mexico is also the country where Walmart opened its first store outside the US in 1991. Today there are 2,408 Walmart retail stores and 163 wholesale clubs in Mexico.
For comparison, Central America has 836 Walmart stores, followed by the UK with 631, Africa with 442, China (438), Canada (408), Chile (367), Japan (333), and Argentina (92). India ranks 10th with 28 stores.
Walmart Interesting Facts for Investors and Competition
Who are Walmart’s biggest competitors and other interesting facts about this retailer giant.
21. Walmart has been associated with bribes abroad.
(The New York Times)
In 2019, Walmart was accused of bribing foreign officials and eventually pleaded guilty. The company paid a fine of $282 million after reaching a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.
This was one of the biggest foreign corruption investigations ever.
22. Walmart statistics show investors seeking to invest in Walmart look for a quick return of investment.
(The Motley Fool)
With such large revenue numbers, it’s no wonder that this retailer giant is also in many investors’ focal points.
That said, Amazon was more popular among those looking for an opportunity to grow their business in the long-term. On the other hand, people who favored Walmart were looking for more hands-on ways to boost their income.
23. Walmart customer count due to coronavirus — only 900 shoppers were allowed in the store in April 2020.
(Business Insider)
Covid restrictions forced Walmart to implement new shopping rules. Simply put, the stores allowed five people for every 1,000 square feet of space. Only 900 shoppers were allowed to be in the stores that are 180,000 square feet big.
24. Walmart daily foot traffic went up by 40,893 within three days in March 2020.
(Business of Business)
On March 13, 2020, the number of “Were Here” counts in Walmart stores was 22,248,826. The “Were Here” count in Sam’s Club was 3,222,674, while Costco’s “Were Here” count was 4,035,416.
25. Walmart didn’t achieve success in Germany.
(MoneyInc)
Among the most interesting facts about Walmart is that their first encounter with the German market wasn’t one for the books. Walmart started to gain more ground on the international scene around the1990s, with its first fruitful operations in the UK, South America, and China.
Nevertheless, their operations in Germany were shut down shortly after opening because the brand had never really taken off. Some experts attributed the failure to excessive efforts to impress the German population with American cultural values.
Germans found the smiling, cheerful Walmart employees and the bubbly greeters at the entrance somewhat off-putting. Eventually, Walmart’s refusal to embrace German customers’ values cost the company around one billion.
All its operations in the strongest and largest economy in Europe ceased.
26. Instead of bringing it in, Walmart stores may be taking away money from communities.
(Business News Daily)
Perhaps the most saddening of “Walmart negative facts” is the retailer’s potential to take money away from the community where it opens.
According to a report by Puget Sound Sage, in a 20-year period, a Walmart store can potentially decrease a neighborhood’s economic output by $13 million. It may also cost that specific community another $14 million in lost wages.
Professionals who conducted the study state that most losses come from the smaller wages Walmart pays on an hourly basis, with a difference of at least $3 an hour.
27. In the Amazon vs Walmart revenue battle, the latter wins without a doubt.
(The Motley Fool)
Looking at the figures from 2019, Amazon managed to generate around $87.4 billion in revenue in the last quarter of the year. In comparison, Walmart nearly doubled that amount with a whopping $141.7 billion.
28. Walmart managed to surpass eBay in retail e-commerce sales for the first time in 2020 by a mere 0.6%.
(Pattern)
In 2019, eBay had 6.1% of US e-commerce sales share, making it the second company on the list of US companies with the largest e-commerce sales share. Yet, in 2020, it held only 4.7%.
Walmart market share was 5.3% in 2020, which is 0.6% more than eBay. Amazon is still the king on the throne of e-commerce sales with 38.7%.
29. Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, never believed in charity.
(MoneyInc)
Sam Walton was not known for philanthropy. In fact, he didn’t believe in charity. Walton thought that owning a store was enough to help people. He also claimed that donations are responsible for taking away customers’ money.
Nevertheless, after his death, Walmart started donating its money to charities. Each year they donate about $1 billion to various charities worldwide.
Walmart Employment Statistics
How many workers does Walmart have?
30. Over 40% of the company’s employees work part-time.
(CNN Business)
According to the 2018 report by the Organization United for Respect (formerly known as OUR Walmart), a dominant 69% of these part-time workers wanted to be full-time employees.
31. Walmart’s average full-time hourly wage is $14.26.
(AbcNews)
This means that average full-time workers earn about $25,000. Walmart’s full-time equals 34 hours per week, although most employees work 37 to 38 hours.
Store managers, however, can earn up to $175,000 per annum.
32. How many employees does Walmart have exactly? There are over 2.2 million people currently working for Walmart worldwide.
(Walmart)
The company’s website states that around 75% of its store management teams began working for Walmart as hourly associates. In 2020, they had over 200,000 promotions, which certainly helped improve the credit score of the employed.
33. 55% of the company’s employees are women.
(Compare Camp)
43% of women employees work as managers, while 26% work in the IT and engineering sector. That said, based on the Walmart diversity statistics, 44% of US workers are people of color. 33% of them work in the management sector.
34. By 2020, Walmart managed to hire 265,000 US veterans.
(WIBW)
Walmart set a goal for hiring 250,000 veterans by the end of 2020. The company managed to surpass its goal by hiring over 265,000.
For example, 6,900 US veterans were hired in Arkansas, 6,400 were employed in Arizona, and 3,800 were hired in Kansas.
Walmart Theft Statistics
How much money does Walmart lose due to shoplifting, and what is its shoplifting policy?
35. Aiming to eliminate store crimes, in 2016, Walmart invested $2.7 billion to provide higher wages and attract more high-caliber employees.
(Forbes)
Experts then believed that adding 250,000 part-time employees would solve the problem of store theft—or at least halve the number of crimes. However, that would have cost the company another $3.25 billion a year.
36. Walmart shrinkage statistics: when the company’s big, so are its shoplifting losses.
(Forbes)
According to data released by Reuters, Walmart loses around $3 billion each year due to shoplifting. That amount constitutes 1% of the retailer’s $300 billion in revenue in the US.
Keep in mind that Walmart doesn’t publicly talk about shrink losses.
37. Walmart doesn’t press charges for shoplifting under $25.
(The Umansky Law Firm)
Although facts about Walmart show the company’s shoplifting policy is to urge people to return the item they stole if the product’s cost is under $25, if the item is over $25, expect to get in trouble. The higher the product’s value, the more severe the penalty.
For example, in Florida, you can get a one-year prison sentence for stealing products valued between $100 and $300.
38. Aggressive investment in weeding out theft in Walmart stores actually wouldn’t pay off.
(Forbes)
As a 2014 survey by the US National Retail Federation reveals, with average retailers, shrinkage amounts to approximately 1.4% of sales, and only 38% of that percentage is from shoplifting. Another 35% is caused by employee theft and things such as cashier and administrative errors, damaged goods, etc.
Walmart crime statistics clearly explain why the retailer giant hasn’t made more drastic moves to fight theft. Walmart’s US sales are about $300 billion annually, 35% of 1.4% of that roughly amounts to $1.5 billion.
More security and more staff training means more money (about 3.25 billion each year, as previously mentioned). From a financial standpoint, it wouldn’t make sense for Walmart to end up spending several billion dollars every year on a problem that’s expected to cost around $1.5 billion.
39. Walmart discrimination facts: the company is anti-union.
(The Atlantic) (Bloomberg Law) (The Walrus)
With over a million employees in the United States only, Walmart is America’s largest employer in the private sector. Sadly, the company also has a long history of being an aggressive anti-union business and trying to crush its employees’ unionization efforts.
FAQs
How many regular Walmarts are left?
(Statista)
In the US, the total number of Walmart supercenters is 3,571. The number of neighborhood markets is significantly lower—809. The total number of Walmart discount stores is 376.
These figures show a steady increase in most cases since 2012 when the total number of supercenters and neighborhood markets was 3,029, and 210, respectively. There were 629 discount stores too. As you can see, the number of discount stores has dropped significantly over the years.
How much did Walmart profit in 2019?
(Statista) (Macrotrends)
Walmart’s total revenue for 2019 was $514.41 billion, which is 2.81% higher than in 2018 ($500.343 billion). Its gross profit was $129.104 billion. That’s 1.7% higher than in 2018 ($126.947 billion).
It’s also worth mentioning that in 2019, the company had a 6% share of online consumer goods sales in the US.
On the other hand, if you want to know how much has Walmart made in 2020, here’s the answer — $523.96 billion. In other words, there was an increase of 1.86% compared to 2019.
The annual gross profit in 2020 also witnessed an increase of 0.2% ($129.359 billion vs. $129.104 billion).
How much is the Walton family worth?
(Forbes) (Investopedia)
Walton’s family estimated wealth is $247 billion. The founders of Walmart are some of the wealthiest people in the US and in the world.
Based on Forbes’s billionaire list, Jim, Alice, and Rob Walton take the 8th, 9th, and 10th place, right below Mark Zuckerberg. This makes Alice Walton the richest woman in the world.
How many stores did Walmart close in 2020?
(93.3 The Drive)
The final decision was made at the start of 2021. Walmart announced shutting 154 US stores. The company is going to shut 269 stores in total worldwide. This move will cost the company less than 1% of its global revenue. It will also affect about 10,000 employees.
On a positive note, the company announced its plans to open 50–60 new supercenters and 85–95 new neighborhood markets in the US.
How popular is Walmart?
(YouGov)
Walmart is the 7th most popular department store, right above Macy’s and below JCPenney. However, when it comes to fame, Walmart takes first place.
The store is most popular among Baby Boomers, followed by Generation X and Millennials. In a like manner, Walmart is more popular among women.
The research data also indicates that 99% of people have heard of Walmart. Moreover, 61% of people have a positive opinion about the company, while 18% have a negative opinion. The remaining 20% have no opinion about the company.
How much does Walmart make every year?
(Macrotrends)
If you follow the data, you’ll notice that Walmart’s annual gross profit goes up each year. We could say Walmart makes about $130 billion every year. For example, the total gross profit in 2019 was $129.104 billion. Compared to 2018, when it was $126.947, there was a growth of 1.7%.
The same change can be seen when we compare 2020 and 2019. However, the increase in the annual gross profit was a mere 0.2%. As for 2021, the gross profit is $138.836 billion with an increase of 7.335
Who owns Walmart now in 2020?
(Forbes)
Walmart is still owned by the Walton family, despite the recent rumors that it was sold to investors from China. This fact also makes the Waltons the richest family in the US as the fortune is estimated at $247 billion.
Approximately half of the company’s stock belongs to seven people, Sam Walton’s and James Walton’s heirs.
Sam’s heirs are his three children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, in addition to Christy, his daughter-in-law, and Lucas, her son. James’s heirs are his two daughters, Ann and Nancy.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Walmart statistics speak for themselves. The company’s been enjoying steady growth in the past years. It is gaining more ground as one of the most prominent retailers, along with giants like Amazon.
Its arms stretch further than the US, being a global corporation with three specific business segments conducting business worldwide.
Sources:
- abcNews
- Bloomberg Law
- Business Insider
- Business News Daily
- Business of Business
- CNN Business
- Compare Camp
- Forbes
- Forbes
- Forbes
- Forbes
- Grocery Dive
- Investopedia
- Macrotrends
- Macrotrends
- MoneyInc
- NRF
- Pattern
- Pymnts
- Revenues and Profits
- ScrapeHero
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- The Atlantic
- The Motley Fool
- The New York Times
- The Umansky Law Firm
- The Walrus
- Walmart
- Walmart
- WIBW
- YouGov
- Ypulse
